Catalysis 2025 Issue

Makeup hydrogen

PSA

Product stripping and fractionation

DW reactor

HDO reactor

Light gas

Gas cooling & purication

UFR

Naphtha

LP product separators

Jet

Hot HP separator

Diesel

Bypass gas exchanger

Filter

Fresh feed

Liquid recycle

Figure 1 Chevron Lummus Global two-stage Isoterra Process2

forming the foundation for its proprietary Ecofining process for the production of RD and jet fuels. The first process licence ensued in 2013, and commercialisation followed at Eni’s Venice refinery in 2014. Since that time, more than 150,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD) of Ecofining capac - ity has been placed into operation across 13 individual units that range in size up to 35,000 barrels per day (BPD) as of January 2025. Five of those are repurposed assets, accord- ing to Honeywell UOP sources. Ecofining is offered in two options: a lower Capex sin - gle-stage design to produce Honeywell’s proprietary RD, and a two-stage option to optimise the production of UOP’s proprietary Green Jet Fuel, a SAF blend component. The two-stage option includes the flexibility to produce RD with changing market needs. There are more than 50 Ecofining licences as of January 2025. One of Diamond Green Diesel’s Port Arthur, Texas, Ecofining units was modified to produce 235 million gal/ year (900 million litres/year or 15,000 bbl/day) by the end of 2024. Diamond Green Diesel announced a supply agree - ment with JetBlue. World Energy Paramount, one of the larger SAF producers at 240 million gal/year (900 million litres/year or 16,000 bbl/day), licensed the Ecofining pro - cess. World Energy has offtake agreements with United, Air France-KLM, JetBlue, SAS, and DHL. UOP also offers co-processing revamps of existing hydrotreating units, particularly distillate hydrotreating units. Other UOP routes to SAF include eFuels with meth - anol-to-jet (eFining), ethanol-to-jet, and FT routes with FT Unicracking to be covered later. Topsoe’s proprietary HydroFlex process addresses the production of RD and SAF with both single-stage and two- stage units. Commercial application of the process began in 2010, and 20+ co-processing units plus some 60+ fully

renewable units have been licensed, of which some 75% are two-stage units according to industry sources. Topsoe uses a graded catalyst activity and selectivity approach with a variety of catalysts. Topsoe uses formulations other than the standard NiMo/alumina catalysts employed in general hydroprocessing to achieve improved selectivity towards HDO, up to 97%. Patent literature points to a Mo/alumina formulation for such high HDO selectivity. Montana Renewables employs HydroFlex technology to produce some 30 million gal/year (110 million litres/year or 2,000 bbl/day) SAF, as does Phillips 66 Rodeo, California to produce some 800 million gal/year (3 billion litres/year or 53,000 bbl/day) of RD and SAF, of which about 20-25% will be SAF at the time of writing. Montana Renewables has announced a multiyear SAF offtake agreement with Shell, and Phillips has a supply agreement with British Airways. Axens’ proprietary Vegan process is applicable for pro - ducing RD and SAF through the hydrotreatment of a wide range of lipids. The process incorporates an HDO step and an isomerisation step, and it can be adapted to revamps and co-processing units. The process has been operating at the TotalEnergies La Mède biorefinery for more than three years, and seven additional units have been licensed as of 2023. Total has an offtake agreement for SAF with Air France-KLM. Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) offers proprietary Isoterra and Isoconversion processes for renewable fuels produc - tion (see Figure 1 ). Isoconversion is a jointly developed hydrothermolysis technology employing CLG and Applied Research Associates (ARA) technologies. Only the post- hydrothermolysis portion of the process involves HEFA-type technologies, specifically hydrodeoxygenation of the FFA intermediate feed, followed by dewaxing to meet final cold flow property specifications. The dewaxing step uses CLG’s proprietary fifth-generation

Catalysis 2025